This year’s event was hosted by everyone’s favourite comedian, Peter Kay, adding a bit of Northern banter to festivities, outweighing the technical problems that make The Brits, The Brits.

Lily Allen was given the daunting task of opening this year’s event with a performance that was understated and far from camp, to say the least. What with entering on a glittery plane, walking down a lit up staircase, men in union jack boxer shorts and soldiers in pink uniforms. Lily was clearly going all out, so much so she just couldn’t help but brake into laughter at what was around her on stage. She of course sang her number 1 smash, come back hit, The Fear. Not only was opening the show a highlight for Lily, she also nabbed British Female Solo Artist. An award she clearly wasn’t expecting, donning a ginger wig so the cameras wouldn’t find her and show her ‘disappointed face’ to the nation.

Controversy is something the Brits is not complete without and this year, it came courtesy of the lovely Liam Gallagher when accepting an award on behalf of Oasis for The Best Album of 30 years (in keeping with the 30th Brits) for (What’s The Story) Morning Glory. Liam’s speech of course featured numerous swear words, shouting Live Forever, then proceeding to throw his Brit into the crowd. Peter Kay spoke for the nation in his comments prior to this with the words, ‘What a prick!. I didn’t think it was possible to Liam to become more of one, but he proved me wrong.

Notable performances came from of course, the star of last night’s show, Lady Gaga. Who dedicated a performance to her dear friend and fashion inspiration, Lee Alexander McQueen, who tragically committed suicide last week. Despite the tragedy being fresh in her mind, it was a great night for a sombre Gaga who nabbed a total of 3 awards, for Best International Female, Best International Album and International Breakthrough Act. There is no one out there in like Gaga and she is arguably groundbreaking in the field of pop, which is why I think these awards are justified if we look at her impact on pop music in 2009/10.

The nation’s favourite Girls Aloud singer, and my future wife put press allegations behind her to perform her debut single and number one record, the ironically titled, Fight For This Love. Unfortunately, controversy lurked with her miming throughout the performance. However, a special entrance and routine, and the song being remixed with dance floor classic, Show Me Love, made her performance a memorable one.

Predictably, JLS won a number of awards, in tough categories such as Best British Breakthrough Act, an award that got be slightly rattled. Yes, JLS may have produced a number of good pop records since they emerged after finishing second on The X Factor. However, are they ground breaking? I would say, No.What I would consider ground breaking would be acts nominated for this award such as Friendly Fires. I was not surprised that JLS won though, as it is clear that the people who vote for the Brits are young girls who dream about Aston and co. nightly and think that having a six pack means you should win an award.

A debatable award also went to Robbie Williams, who received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. Well, this is debatable to some but knowing the nature of the Brit, that being that it reflects the commercial pop-fan public, it is not surprising Robbie was put up for this award. Some may argue that he has far from made an outstanding contribution what with the likes of the disastrous Rudebox era. However, Robbie has made some great pop records and is a great entertainer.

What can be said about the Brit awards is that you should take it with a pinch of salt, its not as credible as it once was, and looking at some of the awards given, I think we might just have to accept that The Brits is now more of an entertainment show than awards.

Saying this, I think this year’s awards were the most credible yet, through the wins of Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Florence & The Machine and Dizzee Rascal. It would be hard to dispute that each of these are not viable winners in my eyes.

Matt Healy

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